Arvid's blog

Depending on the source, either the community of Rossville wants to learn more about their witches, or hates them and are afraid their kids will start playing with potions and putting hexes on people.  Either way, the local religious community hosted an open meeting about it.

According to the News-Gazette last week, it was just a polite gathering organized by local churches to remind Christians to be Christians and to learn more about the Wiccans.  However, according to the Chicago Tribune, the local churches started blasting the Wiccans (complete with a billboard denouncing their beliefs) and organized the meeting to plan for "further steps".  About the only similarity to the story was that the guest lecturer gave a presentation on Wiccans and encouraged them to be Christian.

It's sad when the News-Gazette can't even get local news right, and they basically get scooped by the Tribune two days after their original story runs.

The News-Gazette today reported that you can now get energy credits in Illinois.

Illinoisans who buy solar panels, wind generators or other types of renewable energy equipment can now get a little more bang for their buck.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently signed legislation creating a statewide net-metering program, which means customers can use excess power they generate through such equipment as a credit against electricity they buy from their utility company. In a year when electricity rates jumped significantly, that could make a big difference in a customer's bill.

Ameren apparently didn't offer this before, but says they're not opposed to it. It'll be interesting to see how many people make the conversion. If I didn't have a huge big shady tree on the east side of my house, thereby limiting that side's exposure to sunlight, it would be a lot more attractive to me. Maybe if I put them on top of the garage?

Recently the US Military confirmed that it sought to build a "gay bomb".

The theory apparently is that they would drop this hormone bomb on enemy troops to "turn them homosexual", and thereby make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Our tax dollars at work, I guess...